Impacts of dietary supplementation with p-coumaric acid and indole-3-acetic acid on survival and biochemical response of honey bees treated with tau-fluvalinate

MITTON, GIULIA ANGELICA; SZAWARSKI, NICOLÁS; MITTON, FRANCESCA MARIA; IGLESIAS, AZUCENA; EGUARAS, MARTÍN JAVIER; RUFFINENGO, SERGIO ROBERTO; MAGGI, MATÍAS DANIEL

ECOTOXICOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE

Año: 2019

0147-6513

Pollinator populations are in decline worldwide. Multiple factors have been cited as potential causes to these declines. In honey bees, a combination of stressors is known to cause colony losses. Adequate nutrition is a keyfactor for honey bee growth and colony development. Several studies show that the nutritional quality of the diet is directly proportional to the ability of the bee to face challenges or stressors. We explored the effect of pcoumaric and indole-3-acetic acids (20 μM) enhanced the survival of bees exposed to tau-fluvalinate (approximately 20%). We also showed that dietary p-coumaric acid increased the levels of cytochrome P450 and glutathione reductase activity in bees treated with tau-fluvalinate, as well as in the untreated controls, while glutathione-Stransferase activity was lower in treated bees than in untreated. In bees fed with indole-3-acetic acid, cytochrome P450 showed increased levels, however, glutathione-S-transferase showed the lowest activity. Moreover,the results showed that supplementation with p-coumaric and indole-3-acetic acids did not alter acetyl cholinesterase activity, nor did treatment with tau-fluvalinate. Altogether, the enzymatic changes related to the detoxificationmechanisms observed in bees that were fed with p-coumaric and indole-3-acetic acids could be responsible for the increased survival of bees treated with tau-fluvalinate compared to those that received a control diet. The results presented in this study, together with previous studies, provide evidence of the importance of dietary phytochemicals in the response of honey bees to pesticide exposure. Moreover, these results are the first report of the beneficial effect of the phytohormone indole-3-acetic acid on the survival of honey beestreated with tau-fluvalinate.